President Donald Trump was still publicly insisting that the 2020 election had been “stolen” and refusing to attend President Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration when he left a remarkably warm letter for the incoming Democrat, according to Biden’s forthcoming White House memoir.
The New York Times reported Tuesday on an excerpt from Biden’s memoir, which is due to be published next week.
The book reproduces in full the letter Trump left for Biden on the Resolute Desk.
“Many presidents have come and gone who simply governed as Republicans or Democrats,” Trump wrote in his trademark Sharpie. “Largely, they did not change history, they were just swept along in its relentless tide.”
“This will not happen to you because I know how much you love the American people,” he added.
Biden wrote that the message struck him “as if there were two Donald Trumps.”
Trump wrote the letter in the aftermath of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Biden alluded to the turmoil by noting that Trump had “deeply destabilized our democracy.”
Biden also recalled that Trump had declined to hold the customary meeting between outgoing and incoming presidents.
President Joe Biden revealed the full contents of President Donald Trump’s letter to him, which he received on Inauguration Day in 2021 (pictured). Biden’s White House memoir is scheduled for release next Tuesday
President Donald Trump (left) and First Lady Melania Trump (right) attended a farewell ceremony at Joint Base Andrews on January 20, 2021, instead of President Joe Biden’s inauguration. Trump nevertheless left Biden a warm letter, according to Biden’s new book
Trump became the first modern president since Richard Nixon, who resigned from office, to skip his successor’s swearing-in ceremony.
In the letter, Trump said he believed Biden would remain “true to yourself and the American people.”
“Your strength, your deepest reservoir of energy, comes from the knowledge that millions upon millions of people are depending on you. Their ambitions and aspirations are the reason you are here, with so many counting on your success,” Trump wrote.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung cited that passage when responding to the letter’s contents in comments to The New York Times.
“Joe Biden should have heeded the president’s wise words, but instead he tried to destroy this country and weaponize the justice system against his political enemies,” Cheung said in a statement.
“Biden is a disgrace, and America is better off with him no longer as president,” he added.
The cordial tone was not entirely unexpected. Trump was similarly friendly toward Biden when their roles were reversed on Inauguration Day 2025, as Trump returned to the White House and Biden attended the ceremony.
In Retribution, a book by ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl that was shared with Our News Outlet, Trump told Biden that they would have been “great friends” if politics had not intervened.
Former First Lady Melania Trump (left) and President Donald Trump (right) arrive in Palm Beach, Florida, on January 20, 2021, after skipping President Joe Biden’s inauguration. Trump was the first modern president since Richard Nixon to miss his successor’s swearing-in
When Trump returned to the White House four years after leaving it, he described the Bidens as a “beautiful couple.”
He also told Biden to “stay in touch.”
“Let me know if there is anything you need,” the incoming Republican president said before Biden and outgoing First Lady Jill Biden boarded the presidential helicopter.
Since then, Trump has continued to attack Biden, falsely claiming that the 2020 election was “rigged.” He also displayed a picture of an autopen near the White House Rose Garden instead of a portrait of the Democrat.
Biden’s memoir, Promise Me, America, will be published next Tuesday.
